1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to information processing apparatuses that prepare drawing data using print setting information and print data.
2. Description of the Related Art
What is called “production printing” is known, which prints or binds a large volume of documents for business uses (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2012-238188). Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2012-238188 discloses a printing system capable of notifying the user of whether or not post-press can be performed in consideration of the entire printing system.
In production printing, the printing process is very often treated as a workflow. Efforts have been made to implement an open architecture for the print workflow. Implementing the open architecture allows software (workflow applications to be described later) and printing apparatuses of different companies to describe, for example, print job settings in major printing processes using a common system of description. Job definition format (JDF) is known as a standard format that describes general processes involved in the print workflow.
Print workflow processes include preparing documents and content, specifying a printing method, printing, and post-press. These processes are performed by various types of workflow applications and printing apparatuses. The JDF enables, for example, coordination among different printing apparatuses and printing process management regardless of the manufacturers of the workflow applications or printing apparatuses.
If a workflow application produced by a software manufacturer has extended the JDF, the JDF may contain a description unique to the workflow application. If this is the case, a workflow application or a printing apparatus in a downstream process is unable to analyze the JDF properly to perform its required processing.
As a solution to this problem, the workflow application or the printing apparatus in the downstream process may need to convert the JDF created by the upstream workflow application to a format that can be handled by the workflow application in the downstream process (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2013-088992). Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2013-088992 discloses a printing method in which when print instruction information encoded in a JDF code is transmitted to a printer from a personal computer (PC), the printer acquires, from the received print instruction information, the application name of an application program with which the print instruction information has been generated and transmits the application name to a server; the server then transmits JDF analytical data corresponding to the application name to the printer.
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating exemplary JDF conversion. The workflow application of company A creates JDF and a page description language (PDL) that comply with the company-A format. The workflow application of company B creates JDF and PDL that comply with the company-B format.
The conversion software has been prepared by or for company C. The conversion software of company C converts the JDF in the company A or company B format to JDF in the company C format. This conversion enables the workflow application or the printer of company C to analyze the JDF of company A or company B and to perform the downstream process.
Unfortunately, however, although the conversion software absorbs the difference in the JDF formats as illustrated in FIG. 1, company C additionally needs the conversion software. For example, the printing method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2013-088992 requires the server.
Furthermore, some workflow applications involve different print jobs that contain both JDF and PDL.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary case involving different print jobs. The example described below pertains to 4-page aggregated printing (4-up printing). Both the JDF created by company A and the JDF created by company B describe “4up”. The PDL of company A is, however, created by the “page mode” for describing a page image of one page each, and the PDL has page images for four pages. In contrast, the PDL of company B is created by the “sheet mode” for describing a page image of four imposed pages to be aggregated, and the PDL thus has a page image of one page only.
If different job formats including PDL are used as described above, the workflow application and the printer of company C in the downstream process are unable to handle the print job (JDF and PDL) and coordination in the workflow cannot be achieved, despite the difference in JDF being absorbed by the conversion software. For example, the workflow application and the printer of company C, when performing a print job in the “page mode”, can process a print job prepared by company A and perform the downstream process; however, the workflow application and the printer of company C are unable to yield a printed output as expected when processing a print job prepared by company B and performing the downstream process.
In view of the foregoing problem, there is a need to provide an information processing apparatus capable of appropriately printing a print job.